The truth is out there

EXETER — The fourth annual Exeter UFO Festival on Saturday drew a variety of people, from fun-seeking families to the curious to the committed.

KATHLEEN D. BAILEY

EXETER — The fourth annual Exeter UFO Festival on Saturday drew a variety of people, from fun-seeking families to the curious to the committed.

While families participated in the annual costume contest at Founders Park and made UFOs from recycled materials, the hard-core believers were at Town Hall learning all they could about alien life on Earth.

Dr. Ted Loder, retired UNH professor and scholar of the unexplained, stood at the front of a nearly-full Exeter Town Hall. "How do 'they' get here?" he asked his audience.

"They have solved the technology to bypass the speed of light and time, the limitations expressed by current academic physicists. If they can do it, why can't we?"

For many of the faithful who flocked to downtown Exeter on Saturday, the question was not "if" or "when," but "what's next."

For the serious UFO scholar, Town Hall was the place to be, as Loder and other writers reported on long-past and recent research.

Loder talked about how the "post-UFO" culture could be affected by the alleged visitors. He listed four areas: transportation, energy production, communication and consciousness/medical science. He advocated using the information gleaned to improve life on this planet, and called his talk "Post-Contact Advancement." Loder, who has sat on several government panels, said that he learned in the mid-1990s, from respected government witnesses, that "They, whatever 'they' are, are real."

Speaker Jim Rodger focused on something called "remote viewing." According to Rodger, there is one "universal mind," and practitioners can access it, by remote, with practice and a series of protocols.

"We are all linked," Rodger said. "Have you ever met a stranger, shook their hand and had your hair stand on end? You know something's wrong. You can meet another person, shake hands and feel warm and fuzzy." Rodger said, "When you realize we're all part of each other, it changes your view of humanity. If everyone on earth was a 'remote viewer,' there would be no more lies, cheating, even in politics."

Rodger defined remote viewing as "a person's ability to focus on any person, place or thing, in time or space. It's a continuous flow of data, a 'target.'" It differs from psychic ability because psychics see things in a flash, he said, while remote viewing is more of a "continuous flow of data."

The speakers spent time in the "book room," an annex of the Town Hall, where they signed their work and chatted with the curious. While Kathleen Marden, niece of the late Betty Hill of Portsmouth, an early claimant to a sighting, did not speak this year, she had a book table and fielded questions on her aunt's and other reported experiences.

Marden is a four-year veteran of the Exeter festival. Asked if people are becoming more open-minded about "sightings' and "visitors," she said, "Those who have taken a serious look at the evidence, they are more open-minded. But there's a lot of information on the Internet that's false and misleading — that confuses people. They don't know what to believe."

Gary Bolin of Natick, Mass. said he's a regular at the Exeter festival. "I've been interested in UFOs since I was a little kid," he said. "There's information you can't get anywhere else."

Bolin has seen unexplained objects in the sky twice, both with other people. "When I was 10 I was out with three of my friends, and we saw a round object with lights, hovering. It was 4 in the afternoon and we were flying kites."

In his 20s he was in a rock band, driving back from a gig at about 3 a.m., he said. "My drummer said, 'What's that?'" Bolin and the drummer looked up, and, he alleges, saw an object "bright as a three-magnitude star," moving across the sky and then disappearing.

Debbie McDermott of Canaan takes a more light-hearted approach. "I come every year," she said. "I love to hear the stories, the experiences — and I'm a believer."

McDermott, a middle-school counselor, said, "I've always believed there is other intelligence out there." In her office, she keeps alien figurines, posters and blow-up toys, and finds that they're a real ice-breaker with her students.

Even the parents are in on it, McDermott said with a smile. "They sign notes, 'Live long and prosper.'"

As he chatted with patrons in the sunshine, festival organizer Dean Merchant said he was pleased with the turnout.

His wife Pam, who runs most of the children's activities, said she was "delighted" with the amount of children in her area. The festival committee sold a good amount of T-shirts and hats, Merchant said, and he had to make two extra trips to Co-Ed Sportswear in Newfields for more hats. He estimated about 150 people took in the lectures, while more wandered around, dipping in and out of the downtown businesses.

Advertise

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
seacoastonline.com ~ 111 New Hampshire Ave., Portsmouth, NH 03801 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service